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Comment by douglaswlance | Hacker News Reader

Anyone have a suggestion for American history? I am looking for something that focuses on how America grew into the leading world power in such a short amount of time comparatively.

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Pairing A Patriot's History and A People's History makes for some interesting perspective. They don't really offer explicit points/counterpoints, but they certainly frame things differently over similar time periods (which cover America's coming of age to a powerful world presence).

https://www.amazon.com/Patriots-History%C2%AE-United-States-...

https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States/dp/0062...

I know these books are great but do you know any book which is shorter read, sitting around 1000 pages each those are quite heavy reads

A People’s History is ~800 pages and clips along at a good pace. I don’t know that you can go much shorter with an overview of such a long period without sacrificing a lot of substance. I’d highly recommend making the investment into A People’s History - easily one of the most significant histories of America - and Howard Zinn’s other work if you end up appreciating it.

You can read it online at the link below if you want to dip in without too much commitment. It's quite an easy read, targeted at high-school level, which you may or may not find annoying: http://historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html

The kids version is a lot shorter, not sure if it is just more terse or what: "A Young People's History of the United States"

I am wary of A People's History myself, as he tends to pick his conclusions first, then cherry-pick anecdotes to support those conclusions. These articles are good overviews of some of the issues:

Howard Zinn's History Lessons: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/howard-zinns-history...

Undue Certainty: Where Howard Zinn's A People's History Falls Short: https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/Wineburg...

While it may be interesting to pair A People's History with A Patriot's History, it is like watching a news network interview where they pull in the "person from the left" and "person from the right" to argue at each other. One is usually better off hearing a single person who acknowledges both sides of the issue.

I enjoyed Bill Bryson's "Made In America" which approaches American history through its effect on the English language. A very entertaining and informative read.

https://www.amazon.com/Made-America-Informal-History-Languag...

I don't have a single book for you as that is a very broad theme, but honestly something textbook-y might be what you're looking for. Google for good surveys of American history. If you want to understand America as a world power, I would supplement a general textbook with some economic and military history. WW2 and the Cold War will be very important. A big factor in America's later dominance was the fact that so many other world powers were utterly devastated by the Second World War and could not maintain their former influence, so understanding the transformative half-century between the 1940s and 1990s will be key to answering your question. But I think you'll also be interested in the late 1800s (especially the post-Civil War period) as that is where you see some of America's industrial power really start to pick up. That's the era of major technological changes like the telegraph and railroads as well as the emergence of industrial powerhouses like Standard Oil.

Five Books just published a list this week. https://fivebooks.com/best-books/dr-patrick-porter-on-the-ri...

Jill Lepore's These Truths is a good survey of American history published this year. Its focus is on the notion of America as experiment i.e. Will Democracy work? What makes it possible? And the wild exaggerations that result.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States from 2014 is very illuminating of the strategy of colonization and empire building in the US. It also connects the dots to the present day very well.

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